Two relevant dining experiences:

1. Upscale ($100+ pp tab) restaurant (La Goulue) in a Florida resort town -- both bar and dining room busy. Not enough valet peeps, but restaurant itself staffing adequate to good. Everything arrived reasonably timely. Nice experience.
2. Upper-mid-market (Maggiano's, around $60 pp tab) restaurant in an exurban lifestyle center -- also busy. One bartender, clearly overwhelmed with a full bar and hightops. 15+ minutes to get drinks (while waiting for reservation). Dining room about 67% full, but reservations seated around 15 minutes behind schedule. Apparently not enough servers to open the entire dining room. Server was fine -- upbeat and prompt -- also announced it was his second day. He had four or five tables, which he was handling well. Another server toward the end of dinner made a big show to tell our server "no more seatings -- the front door is locked" (Big outcry of relief) This was around 9pm. I had seen walk-ins turned away while at the bar. Still a nice overall experience.

I've been cooking more during Covid. With all the work-from-home time, I can slow-cook things like Ossobucco which I would not have attempted before the changes. I still won't try things like deep-fried shrimp or french fries (who wants to own a deep fryer in a condo?) -- but the repertoire is wider than before. I have a lot of sympathy for people who do not know how to cook -- this must have been a difficult 18 months.